Find GPS coordinates in Google Maps

I'm getting ready to take take a long road trip so I've been entering locations and routes into my Garmin GPS. Using the Garmin RoadTrip software without any additional maps on my Mac, the only way to enter a location is by entering actual GPS coordinates. I use Google Maps too, and oddly enough the GPS coordinates are not displayed automatically there. Hmmm.

A quick search produced this cool java script at gpsreview.net that extracts the GPS coordinates from any location you find on Google Maps. Follow the steps below to find your coordinates.

Search for a location in Google Maps

Right-click or control-click (on a Mac) on the red marker for the location you found. In the popup menu choose "center map here"

Paste the script below in the URL field of your browser (without the brackets) and hit Return

javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));

A small window will pop up showing the GPS coordinates for the location

Copy and paste the coordinates into the Google Maps search field and hit Return

A second, green arrow marker will be created next to the original one and when you mouse over it the GPS coordinates will be displayed

In addition to this handy tool I also use the Garmin Communicator plug-in in my browser to send mapped locations from Google Maps directly into my GPS. Using both these tools I can easily plot routes for each day of my trip and spend less time navigating and more time enjoying the drive.

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